QA Talk: SILENCE/VIOLENCE – Independent queer narratives and The United States of Oppression

In conversation with Travis Mathews and Yance Ford

Travis Mathews director “DISCREET” (In Their Room, I Want Your Love, Interior: Leather Bar) and first-time filmmaker Yance Ford, director “STRONG ISLAND” talk about their films Discreet and Strong Island, and discuss the levels of queer and racist oppression that has been going on in the USA for decades and how it has affected their works. Talking about the closeted spaces of Texas, the alt-right movement, everyda racism and the segregationist population of Long Island, both filmmakers discuss how political circumstances have impacted their feature films.

Biography Travis Mathews

Born in Ohio, USA in 1975, this director, screenwriter, editor and producer with a background in psychology has primarily concentrated on topics such as masculinity and intimacy between homosexual men. He collaborated with James Franco on the docu-fiction “Interior. Leather Bar” which screened at over 75 international festivals, including the Berlinale and in Rotterdam. His 2012 debut feature film “I Want Your Love” about a group of gay friends in San Francisco premiered at the Frameline Film Festival and has been shown at numerous other international festivals. More information about the film “DISCREET”

Biography Yance Ford

A transgender director, he worked for ten years as series producer on the ‘POV’ television series, which broadcasts independent documentaries and has won a number of Emmys. He has received various prizes and grants including the Creative Capital Award and a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellowship. He also works as an architectural welder and helped assemble the sculpture ‘Maman’ by Louise Bourgeois which was exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in New York. More information about “STRONG ISLAND”: